Locking device for mine cars



J. P. MILLER LOCKING DEVICE FOR MINE CARS Apr. 24, 1923. 1,452,923

Filed Jan. 25 1920 EZ QJ.

INVENTOR f0/z/z PMZ/ez WITNESS ATTORNEYS Patented Apr. 24, 1923.

unireo srarss earner caries.

JOHN P. MILLER, OF DURYEA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HERBERT S. WOODWARD, OF CABBONDALE, PENNSYLVANIA.

LOCKING DEVICE FOR MINE CARS.

Application filed. January 26, 1920.

Z '0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I. JOHN P. MILLER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Duryea, county of Luzerne, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Looking Devices for Mine Cars, of which the following 1s a specification, reference .being had to accompanying drawing.

The invention relates to railway cars adapted for use in conveying materials, such as coal, ores, and the like, in and from mines, and has reference more particularly to a new and improved door and locking means therefor whereby the same may be operated to positively retain the contents of the car therein without any danger of a premature opening of the door and dumping of the contents irrespective of the rough handling of the car and whereby the same also may be easily operated from either side of the car by an operator or miner for open1ng the door at the time when it is desired to dump the contents of the car.

An object of my invention is to provide new and useful means of simple construction for positively and safely retaining the door of the car in locked and closed position until it is manually operated to permit the opening of the door thereof.

Another object is to provide the car door with a locking device at both ends of the door whereby the warping of the door is prevented and to connect said locking devices in such a manner that the operation of either will cause a simultaneous operation of the other.

Another object of my invention is to so construct and arrange the parts of the locking means that the weight thereof will move or urge and constantly maintain the parts into locking and locked position respectively Another object is to provide the locking Serial No. 353,940.

latch and to so form the latch that a relatlvely small angular movement of the part acted upon for the unlocking operation will produce arelatively greater or larger movement of the part'normally in looking engagement with a fixed part of the car.

A st1ll further object is to provide each locking device with a locking plate having an lnclined slot the inclination. of which cooperates with the latch of the locking device to positively maintain the latch in locked position by the lateral thrust of the load in the car, the tendency to so maintain the latch in locked position increasing with such lateral thrust.

'A still further object is to so arrange the door that it will open or swing outwardlv under the influence of the lateral thrust o r weight of the contents of the car.

Other objects and advantages of my invention will be more fully disclosed in the following specification.

Referring to the drawings, in which the same reference characters designate corresponding parts in the views illustrated,

1 is a vertical elevation of an end of a car provided with my invention, and,

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary detail in side view of one of the locking devices.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing the car comprises in general a body of open box type supported upon a chassis which is in turn mounted upon a truck adapted to travel over the rails of a railway.

The body of the car comprises a floor 1, side walls 2 and end doors 3. The side walls of the car may be suitably braced by stakes 4 secured, in any appropriate manner, at their lower ends to the chassis 5 and braced at their upper ends by tie bolts 6. The chassis may comprise longitudinally disposed beams or sills 7, provided with end bumpers S, mounted in any suitable manner upon the truck 9, the latter being adapted to operate over the rails 10. At the sides of the body of the ear and adjacent the top thereof may be provided longitudinal side members 11 mounted in any desired manner upon the stakes 4, as is clearly shown in Fig. 1 of the drawing.

The body of the ear is constructed with; open ends normally closed. by door s e.

erably of wood, the parts of which may be firmly held together by ll-shapcd straps 12 secured thereto by means of bolts or rivets 13. The door is hingedly mount d in a depending position upon an end tie rod 6 so that the door may swing thereabout pendulously. The end tie rod 6 may be mounted in b 'ackets 14E suitably secured to the top of the side members 11 and may be provided with tubular spacing members 15 interposed between the brackets 1 1 and the upper or hinge portions 12 of the straps 12 to maintain the door in proper position.

At both ends of the door and near the lower corners thereof are attached locking devices each comprising a Z-shaped bracket 16 suitably secured to the door by mains of lbolts 1? and with its lower end 18 disposed in spaced relation to the door to include therebetween a pivotally mounted latch 19, the latter being mounted upon a pivot pin 20 passing through a perforation provided in the lower end of the portion 18 and the door 3. The latch 19 is preferably constructed of metal and provided with hubs 21 forming a bearing member for the pivot pin 20 and is provided with an impact projection 22, a locking tongue 23 ant a link connecting weighted portion 2 1, the latter being disposed on the opposite side of the pivot pin 20 from the impact portion and the locking tongue. The portion 2 1 is so formed as to comprise a larger amount of material than that included in the members 22 and 23 so that the portion 2 1 is oi considerably greater weight than the members 22 and 23 whereby the portion 2t is constantly urged downwardly by the force of gravity about the pivot pin :20 for the pur pose of moving and maintaining the loci:- ing tongue 23 into locking and locked position respectively, as will appear more fully hereinafter.

The portion 24 of each latch 19 is provided with a pair of perforations 25 and 9-6 whereby a connecting rod 27 may be selectively connected in either of the positions shown in full or dotted and dash lines in Fig. 1 of the drawing. The connecting link may be provided at its ends with bifurcated members 28 spanning; the portions and pivotally securd thereto by pins 29 suitably held in place .v in either of the perforations 25 or by cotters 30. it will be observed that when the link 7 is connect ed with the perforation 26 of one of the latches 19 the other end of the link is connected with the perforation 25 or the other latch so that upon operating the latter latch as for ensmple v that Sl'lOWD. to the left of Fig. 1, to move the same into unlocked position, the link 27 will be given a pull to substantially sin'iultaneously operate the other latch 19, as for example, that shown to the right of Fig. Obviously it it desirech the latch at the right may be operated and a thrust will be transmitted through the link 53? to the latch shown at the left, although in practice I have observed that the transmis sion of the force thr h a pull appears to be more satisfactory Lian by a thrust and rccordingly in the event of operating the latch 19 shown at the right side of Fig. 1 the link 27 may be located in the dot-anddash line position in order that the "force transmitted to the other latch will be a ten siletiiorce through the link 27.

it each side of the body of the car attacl h to the side wall 2 of the car by means of bolts and held in spaced relation to the side ot the car by an interposed spacer 3:3, as is clearly shown in Fig. 1. Each looking}; plate 31 is provided with a slot 3 1, which is slightly inclii'ied to th vertical, as shown in Fig. 2, and through which the end oil. the tongue is adapted to project when in locked position. By inclining the slot with its upper end more remote "from the door than its lower end, any lateral force tending to more the tongue 23 relative to the plate 2-31 will cause the tongue to move u iwardiy in the slot 3%. thereby positively maintaining or more firmly urg- 111;); the parts in locked p sition and avoiding any possibility of the tongue 23 beinp worked free from the plate 81 until it is forcibly mores by the operator in the manner iereina'l'ter disclosed. it will be noted by lo sting the pivot pin 20 with relation to the latch parts so that the tongue 23 will be considerably longer than the impact portion a blow given to the portion 22 with a han'inier or similar instrument causing acomparatively small movement ot' the impact portion wi l cause a relatively large movement of the locking tongue 23 whereby the same may be rapidly moved through the slot 3% and cleared trom the locking plate 31. In use and operation the doors are swung: into vertical position. but it the latches 2 located to permit the door to completely close the operator may grasp the connectiup rod and move it; to the left as shown in l igz. L to clear the loclo mg; tongue by the c lp ot the plates Ill. ter the door has moved into comoletolv porition the locking latches 1i ma n lee permuted to more into locking poshop by gravity due to the weight o the portions ronibiiunl with the weight of" the linl': E27 conne ted thereto and the some tcrial such as coali and the same conveyed to its de tination, The lateral thrust of the contents oi the ca r will constantly urge the op ied a lockin plate 31 suitabl 7 secured to dump the contents of the car the operator may operate the locking means, to unlock the same for the purpose 'of permitting the door to open, by giving a comparatively light blow with a hammer or the like upon the impact portion 22 of the latch 19. This results in causing the impact portion to move downwardly about the pivot pin 20 and to also cause a comparatively long sweep of the locking tongue 23 through the slot 34: of the locking plate 31 to disengage the same therefrom. If desired, however, the latch may be forcibly moved, with the same result, by means of a lever of any suitable form, such as a crow-bar. In this case the end of the lever may be fulcrumed against the under surface 35 of the Z-bar 18 and with its power point of contact hearing against the top of the impact portion 22 of the latch. Vith the parts in position as shown in Fig. 1, the impact or force delivered or applied to the latch shown at the left will be transmitted through the link 27, in the form of a tensile stress, to the latch shown at the right. In this manner the disengaging operation between the tongues 23 and the plates 31 occurs simultaneously at both ends of the door and the door is then permitted to open to discharge the contents of the car.

It is the usual practice to run the car upon an incline tipple and to open the door at the lower end thereof for the purpose of discharging the contents of the car, the inclination of. the car aiding in the discharge of the contents therefrom.

lVhile I have herein illustrated and described one embodiment of my invention with considerable particularity, I do not however, desire or intend to limit myself specifically to the particular details disclosed, as considerable changes and modifications may be made in the details and arrangements of the means shown and employed without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I clalm as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a locking device for mine car doors, the combination of slotted locking plates fixed to the sides of said mine car adjacent the ends thereof, a pair of locking latches pivotally mounted. on said door adjacent said. plates and operative in planes trans verse to said plates, said latches comprising means adapted to engage in the slots of said plates for normally maintaining said door in closed position, a link connecting said latches, said link having one end pivoted to one latch on one side of a plane passing through the axes of the pivots of said latches and its other end pivoted to the other latch on cally spaced perforations, a link connecting said latches, one end of said link being connectible with one of said latches through the lower perforation thereof and the other end of said link being connectible with the other of said latches through the upper perforation thereof whereby an operating movement of either latch will be imparted by said link to simultaneously operate the other of said latches.

3. In a locking device for mine car doors provided with a slotted locking plate fixed to the side of said mine car adjacent the end thereof, the combination of a pivotally mounted locking latch on said door adjacent said locking plate, said latch comprising a relatively long locking'tongue adapted to enter the slot of said plate, a relatively short portion movable under impact or pressure whereby a small movement thereof will cause a relatively large movement of the end of said tongue to disengage the same from said plate and a weighted portion whereby said latch including the tongue is normally moved and held into locking position by the weight thereof when the car door is moved into closed position.

4:. In a mine car comprising a car body, chassis truck and an end door therefor, the combination of a locking means for'said door comprising locking plates provided with slots secured to said car body at the sides thereof, angularly movable latches pivotally mounted upon said door adjacent said locking plates, each of said latches including a relatively long locking tongue adapted to move into and out of the slots in said locking plates, a relatively short impact portion and weighted portion located on the opposite side of the pivotal mounting of said latch from said tongue and said impact portion whereby the weight of said weighted portion maintains and constantly urges said locking tongues into the slots of said plates and a connecting link between said latches whereby the operation of one latch will cause the simultaneous operation of the other I latch.

5. In a mine car comprising a car body, chassis truck and an end door therefor, the combination of a locking means for said door the opposite side of said plane whereby an comprising locking plates provided with inclined slots secured to said car body at the stantly urge said locking tongues into locked sides thereof, angulai'ly movable latches piv position and a connecting link between said 1 otally mounted upon said door adjacent said latches whereby the operation of one latch locking plates, each of said latches includwill cause the simultaneous operation of the ing a locking tongue adapted to move into other latch.

and out of the slots in said locking plates In witness whereof, I have hereunto set and an impact portion, the inclination of my hand this twentieth day of January,1920. said slots operating to maintain and 0011- JOHN P. MILLER. 

